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“Terror lynchings were horrific acts of violence whose perpetrators were never held accountable,” said the 80-page report, “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.”

“Indeed, some public-spectacle lynchings were attended by the entire white community and conducted as celebratory acts of racial control and domination.”

The Equal Justice Initiative, a private nonprofit based in Montgomery that fights for civil rights, listed the number of lynchings in Southern states:

Mississippi 654

Georgia 589

Louisiana 549

Arkansas 492

Alabama 361

Texas 335

Florida 311

Tennessee 233

South Carolina 185

Kentucky 168

North Carolina 123

Virginia 84

Outside of Fulton County, many of the lynchings in Georgia were clustered in the extreme southwestern part of the state. An asterisk indicates that the county is in that region.

Fulton 35

* Early 24

* Brooks 20

* Mitchell 11

* Decatur 10

* Baker 10

Jasper 10

Oconee 10

Jasper 10

Bleckley 10

Montgomery 10

* Miller 9

* Thomas 8

While focusing on what it calls the 12 most “active” states for lynching, all in the South, the report said it also identified an additional 300 lynchings in states outside the South.

“The history of terror lynching complicates contemporary issues of race, punishment, crime and justice,” said the report.

“Avoiding honest conversation about this history has undermined our ability to build a nation where racial justice can be achieved.”

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